comme ceux de Florence ou de Venise n'en sont pas moins cependant
un des traits de la ville des papes. Ils n'appartiennent ni au
moyen age, ni à la renaissance (la Palais de Venise seul rappelle
les constructions massives de Florence); ils sont des modèles
d'architecture civile moderne. Les Bramante, les Sangallo, les
Balthazar Peruzzi, qui les ont batis, sont des maîtres qu'on ne se
lasse pas d'étudier. La magnificence de ces palais reside
principalement dans leur architecture et dans les collections
artistiques que quelques-uns contiennent. Un certain nombre sont
malheureusement dans un triste état d'abandon. De plus, à
l'exception d'un très petit nombre, ils sont restés inachevés. Cela
se conçoit; presque tous sont le produit du luxe célibataire des
papes ou des cardinaux; très-peu de ces personages ont pu voir la
fin de ce qu'ils avaient commencé. Leurs heritiers, pour le
plupart, se souciaient fort peu de jeter les richesses qu'ils
venaient d'acquerir dans les édifices de luxe et de vanité. A
l'intérieur, le plus souvent, est un mobilier rare, suranné, et
mesquin."--_A. Du Pays._[7]
The _Palazzo Bernini_ (151 Corso), on the left, has, inside its
entrance, a curious statue of "Calumny" by _Bernini_, with an
inscription relative to his own sufferings from slander.
On the right, the small piazza of S. Lorenzo opens out of the Corso.
Here is the _Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina_, founded in the fifth
century, but rebuilt in its present form by Paul V. in 1606. The
campanile is of an older date, and so are the lions in the portico.
"When the lion, or other wild beast, appears in the act of preying
on a smaller animal or on a man, is implied the severity of the
Church towards the impenitent or heretical; but when in the act of
sporting with another creature, her benignity towards the neophyte
and the docile. At the portal of St Lorenzo in Lucina, this idea is
carried out in the figure of a mannikin affectionately stroking the
head of the terrible creature who protects, instead of devouring
him."--_Hemans' Christian Art._
No one should omit seeing the grand picture of _Guido Reni_, over the
high altar of this church,--the Crucifixion, seen against a wild, stormy
sky. Niccolas Poussin, ob. 1660, is buried here, and one of his best
known Arcadian landscapes is reproduced in a bas-relief upon his tomb,
which was erected by Chateaubriand, with the epitaph,--
"Parce piis lacrymis, vivit Pussinus in urnâ,
Vivus qui dederat, nescius ipse mori.
Hîc tamen ipse silet; si vis audire loquentem,
Mirum est, in tabulis vivit, et eloquitur."
In "The Ring and the Book" of Browning, this church is the scene of
Pompilia's baptism and marriage. She is made to say:--
--"This St. Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man."
Here the bodies of her parents are represented as being exposed after
the murder:
--"beneath the piece
Of Master Guido Reni, Christ on Cross,
Second to nought observable in Rome."
On the left, where the Via della Vite turns out of the Corso, an
inscription in the wall records the destruction, in 1665, of the
triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, which existed here till that time.
The magnificence of this arch is attested by the bas-reliefs
representing the history of the emperor, which were removed from it, and
are preserved on the staircase of the palace of the Conservators.
"Les Barbares n'en savaient pas assez et n'avaient pas assez de
patience pour démolir les monuments romains; mais, avec les
ressources de la science moderne et à la suite d'une administration
régulière, on est venu à bout de presque tout ce que le temps avait
épargné. Il y'avait, par exemple, au commencement du XVIe.
siècle, quatre arcs de triomphe qui n'existent plus; le dernier,
celui de Marc Aurele, a été enlevé par le pape Alexandre VII. On
lit encore dans le Corso l'inconcevable inscription dans laquelle
le pape se vante d'avoir debarrassé la promenade publique de ce
monument, qui, vu sa date, devait être d'un beau style."--_Ampère,
Voyage Dantesque._
A little further down the Corso, on the left, the Via delle Convertite
leads to _S. Sylvestro in Capite_, one of three churches in Rome
dedicated to the sainted pope of the time of Constantine. This, like S.
Lorenzo, has a fine mediæval campanile. The day of St. Sylvester's
death, December 31 (A.D. 335), is kept here with great solemnity, and is
celebrated by magnificent musical services. This pope was buried in the
cemetery of Priscilla, whence his remains were removed to S. Martino al
Monte. The title "In Capite" is given to this church on account of the
head of St John Baptist, which it professes to possess, as is narrated
by an inscription engrafted into its walls.
The convent attached to this church was founded in 1318, especially for
noble sisters of the house of Colonna who dedicated themselves to God.
Here it was that the celebrated Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara,
came to reside in 1525, when widowed in her thirty-sixth year, and here
she began to write her sonnets, a kind of "In Memoriam," to her husband.
It is a curious proof of the value placed upon her remaining in the
world, that Pope Clement VII. was persuaded to send a brief to the
abbess and nuns, desiring them to offer her "all spiritual and temporal
consolations," but forbidding them, under pain of the greater
excommunication, to permit her to take the veil in her affliction.[8]
At the end of this street, continued under the name of Via de Mercede
(No. 11 was the residence of Bernini), and behind the Propaganda, is the
_Church of S. Andrea delle Fratte_, whose brick cupola by Borromini is
so picturesque a feature. The bell-tower beside it swings when the bells
are rung. In the second chapel on the right is the beautiful modern tomb
of Mademoiselle Julie Falconnet, by Miss Hosmer. The opposite chapel is
remarkable for a modern miracle (?) annually commemorated here.
"M. Ratisbonne, un juif, appartenant à une très-riche famille
d'Alsace, qui se trouvait accidentellement à Rome, se promenant
dans l'église de S. Andrea delle Fratte pendant qu'on y faisait les
préparatifs pour les obsèques de M. de la Ferronays, s'y est
converti subitement. Il se trouvait debout en face d'une chapelle
dédiée à l'ange gardien, à quelques pas, lorsque tout-à-coup il a
eu une apparition lumineuse de la Sainte Vierge qui lui a fait
signe d'aller vers cette chapelle. Une force irrésistible l'y a
entraíné, il y est tombé à genoux, et il a été à l'instant
chrétien. Sa première parole à celui qui l'avait accompagné a été,
en relevant son visage inondé de larmes: 'Il faut que ce monsieur
ait beaucoup prié pour moi.'"--_Récit d'une Sœur._
"Era un istante ch'io mi stava in chiesa allora che di colpo mi
sentii preso da inesprimibile conturbamento. Alzai gli occhi; tutto
l'edifizio s'era dileguato a' miei sguardi; sola una cappella aveva
come in se raccolta tutta la luce, e di mezzo di raggianti
splendori s' è mostrata diritta sull'altare, grande,
sfolgoreggiante, piena di maestà, e di dolcezza, la Vergine Maria.
Una forza irresistibile m'ha sospinto verso di lei. La Vergine m'ha
fatto della mano segno d'inginocchiarmi; pareva volermi dire,
'Bene!' Ella non mi ha parlato ma io ho inteso tutto."--_Recital of
Alfonse Ratisbonne._[9]
M. de la Ferronays, whose character is now so well known from the
beautiful family memoirs of Mrs. Augustus Craven, is buried beneath the
altar where this vision occurred. In the third chapel on the left is the
tomb of Angelica Kauffmann; in the right aisle that of the Prussian
artist, Schadow. The two angels in front of the choir are by _Bernini_,
who intended them for the bridge of S. Angelo.
Returning to the Corso, the Via S. Claudio (left) leads to the pretty
little church of that name, adjoining the Palazzo Parisani. Behind, is
the Church of Sta. Maria in Via.
At the corner of the Piazza Colonna is the _Palazzo Chigi_, begun in
1526 by Giacomo della Porta, and finished by Carlo Maderno. It contains
several good pictures and a fine library, but is seldom shown.[10]
The most remarkable members of the great family of Chigi have been the
famous banker Agostino Chigi, who lived so sumptuously at the Farnesina
(see chap. 20), and Fabio Chigi, who mounted the papal throne as
Alexander VII., and who long refused to have anything to do with the
aggrandisement of his family, saying that the poor were the only
relations he would acknowledge, and, like Christ, he did not wish for
any nearer ones. To keep himself in mind of the shortness of earthly
grandeur, this pope always kept a coffin in his room, and drank out of a
cup shaped like a skull.
The side of the _Piazza Colonna_, which faces the Corso, is occupied by
the Post-Office. On its other sides are the Piombino and Ferrajuoli
palaces, of no interest. In the centre is placed the fine _Column_,
which was found on the Monte Citorio in 1709, having been originally
erected by the senate and people A.D. 174, to the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus (adopted son of the Emperor Hadrian,--husband of his
niece, Annia Faustina,--father of the Emperor Commodus). It is
surrounded by bas-reliefs, representing the conquest of the Marcomanni.
One of these has long been an especial object of interest, from being
supposed to represent a divinity (Jupiter?) sending rain to the troops,
in answer to the prayers of a Christian legion from Mitylene. Eusebius
gives the story, stating that the piety of these Christians induced the
emperor to ask their prayers in his necessity, and a letter in Justin
Martyr (of which the authenticity is much doubted), in which Aurelius
allows the fact, is produced in proof. The statue of St. Paul on the
top of the column was erected by Sixtus V.; the pedestal also is modern.
Behind the Piazza Colonna is the _Piazza Monte Citorio_, containing an
_Obelisk_ which was discovered in broken fragments near the Church of S.
Lorenzo in Lucina. It was repaired with pieces of the column of
Antoninus Pius, the pedestal of which may still be seen in the Vatican
garden. Its hieroglyphics are very perfect and valuable, and show that
it was erected more than 600 years before Christ, in honour of
Psammeticus I. It was brought from Heliopolis by Augustus, and erected
by him in the Campus Martius, where it received the name of Obeliscus
Solaris, from being made to act as a sun-dial.
"Ei, qui est in campo, divus Augustus addidit mirabilem usum ad
deprehendendas solis umbras, dierumque ac noctium ita magnitudines,
strato lapide ad magnitudinem obelisci, cui par fieret umbra, brumæ
confectæ die, sexta hora; paulatimque per regulas (quæ sunt ex die
exclusæ) singulis diebus decresceret ac rursus augesceret: digna
cognitu res et ingenio fœcundo. Manilius mathematicus apici
auratam pilam addidit, cujus umbra vertice colligeretur in se ipsa
alias enormiter jaculante apice ratione (ut ferunt) a capite
hominis intellecta. Hæc observatio triginta jam ferè annos non
congruit, sive solis ipsius dissono cursu, et cœli aliqua
ratione mutato, sive universa tellure a centra suo aliquid emota ut
deprehendi et in aliis locis accipio: sive urbis tremoribus ibi
tantum gnomone intorto, sive inundationibus Tiberis sedimento molis
facto: quanquam ad altitudinem impositi oneris in terram quoque
dicantur acta fundamenta."--_Plin. Nat. Hist._ lib. xxxiv. 14.
_The Palace of the Monte Citorio_ (designed by Bernini) contains public
offices connected with police, passports, &c. On the opposite side of
the piazza are the Railway and Telegraph Offices.
Proceeding up the Corso, the Via di Pietra (right) leads into the small
Piazza di Pietra, one side of which is occupied by the eleven remaining
columns of the _Temple of Neptune_, built up by Innocent XII. into the
walls of the modern Custom-house. It is worth while to enter the
courtyard in order to look back and observe the immense masses of stone
above the entrance, part of the ancient temple,--which are here
uncovered.
Close to this, behind the Palazzo Cini, in the Piazza Orfanelli, is the
_Teatro Capranica_, occupying part of a palace of _c._ 1350, with gothic
windows. The opposite church, _Sta. Maria in Aquiro_, recalls by its
name the column of the Equiria, celebrated in ancient annals as the
place where certain games and horse-races, instituted by Romulus, were
celebrated. Ovid describes them in his Fasti. The church was founded
_c._ 400, but was re-built under Francesco da Volterra in 1590.
A small increase of width in the Corso is now dignified by the name of
the _Piazza Sciarra_. The street which turns off hence, under an arch
(Via de Muratte, on the left), leads to the _Fountain of Trevi_, erected
in 1735 by Niccolo Salvi for Clement XII. The statue of Neptune is by
Pietro Bracci.
"The fountain of Trevi draws its precious water from a source far
beyond the walls, whence it flows hitherward through old
subterranean aqueducts, and sparkles forth as pure as the virgin
who first led Agrippa to its well-springs by her father's door. In
the design of the fountain, some sculptor of Bernini's school has
gone absolutely mad, in marble. It is a great palace-front, with
niches and many bas-reliefs, out of which looks Agrippa's legendary
virgin, and several of the allegoric sisterhood; while at the base
appears Neptune with his floundering steeds and tritons blowing
their horns about him, and twenty other artificial fantasies, which
the calm moonlight soothes into better taste than is native to
them. And, after all, it is as magnificent a piece of work as ever
human skill contrived. At the foot of the palatial façade, is
strown, with careful art and ordered regularity, a broad and broken
heap of massive rock, looking as if it may have lain there since
the deluge. Over a central precipice falls the water, in a
semicircular cascade; and from a hundred crevices, on all sides,
snowy jets gush up, and streams spout out of the mouths and
nostrils of stone monsters, and fall in glistening drops; while
other rivulets, that have run wild, come leaping from one rude step
to another, over stones that are mossy, shining and green with
sedge, because, in a century of their wild play, nature has adopted
the fountain of Trevi, with all its elaborate devices, for her own.
Finally the water, tumbling, sparkling, and dashing with joyous
haste and never ceasing murmur, pours itself into a great marble
basin and reservoir, and fills it with a quivering tide; on which
is seen, continually, a snowy semi-circle of momentary foam from
the principal cascade, as well as a multitude of snow-points from
smaller jets. The basin, occupies the whole breadth of the piazza,
whence flights of steps descend to its border. A boat might float,
and make mimic voyages, on this artificial lake.
"In the daytime there is hardly a livelier scene in Rome than the
neighbourhood of the fountain of Trevi; for the piazza is then
filled with stalls of vegetable and fruit dealers,
chestnut-roasters, cigar-vendors, and other people whose petty and
wandering traffic is transacted in the open air. It is likewise
thronged with idlers, lounging over the iron railing, and with
_forestieri_, who come hither to see the famous fountain. Here,
also, are men with buckets, urchins with cans, and maidens (a
picture as old as the patriarchal times) bearing their pitchers
upon their heads. For the water of Trevi is in request, far and
wide, as the most refreshing draught for feverish lips, the
pleasantest to mingle with wine, and the wholesomest to drink in
its native purity, that can anywhere be found. But, at midnight,
the piazza is a solitude; and it is a delight to behold this
untameable water, sporting by itself in the moonshine, and
compelling all the elaborate trivialities of art to assume a
natural aspect, in accordance with its own powerful simplicity.
Tradition goes, that a parting draught at the fountain of Trevi
ensures a traveller's return to Rome, whatever obstacles and
improbabilities may seem to beset him."--_Hawthorne's
Transformation_.
"Le bas-relief, placé au-dessus de cette fontaine, représente la
jeune fille indiquant la source précieuse, comme dans l'antiquité
une peinture représentait le même évènement dans une chapelle
construite au lieu où il s'était passé."--_Ampère, Emp._ i. 264.
In this piazza is the rather handsome front of _Sta. Maria in Trivia_,
formerly Sta. Maria in Fornica, erected by Cardinal Mazarin, on the site
of an older church built by Belisarius--as is told by an inscription:--
"Hanc vir patricius Belisarius urbis amicus
Ob culpæ veniam condidit ecclesiam.
Hanc, idcirco, pedem qui sacram ponis in ædem
Ut miseretur eum sæpe precare Deum."
The fault which Belisarius wished to expiate, was the exile of Pope
Sylverius (A.D. 536), who was starved to death in the island of Ponza.
The crypt of the present building, being the parish church of the
Quirinal, contains the entrails of twenty popes (removed for
embalmment)--from Sixtus V. to Pius VIII.--who died in the Quirinal
Palace!
The little church near the opposite corner of the piazza is that of _The
Crociferi_, and is still (1870) served by the Venerable Don Giovanni
Merlini, Father General of the Order of the Precious Blood, and the
personal friend of its founder, Gaspare del Buffalo.
The Fountain of Trevi occupies one end of the gigantic _Palazzo Poli_,
which contains the English consulate. At the other end is the shop of
the famous jeweller, Castellani, well worth visiting, for the sake of
its beautiful collection of Etruscan designs, both in jewellery and in
larger works of art.
"Castellani est l'homme qui a ressuscité la bijouterie romaine. Son
escalier, tapissé d'inscriptions et de bas-reliefs antiques, fait
croire que nous entrons dans un musée. Un jeune marchand aussi
érudit que les archéologues fait voir une collection de bijoux
anciens de toutes les époques, depuis les origines de l'Etrurie
jusqu'au siècle de Constantin. C'est la source où Castellani puise
les éléments d'un art nouveau qui détrônera avant dix ans la
pacotille du Palais-Royal."--_About_, _Rome Contemporaine_.
"C'est en s'inspirant des parures retrouvées dans les tombes de
l'Etrurie, des bracelets et des colliers dont se paraient les
femmes étrusques et sabines, que M. Castellani, guidé par le goût
savant et ingénieux d'un homme qui porte dignement l'ancien nom de
Caetani, a introduit dans la bijouterie un style à la fois
classique et nouveau. Parmi les artistes les plus originaux de Rome
sont certainement les orfèvres Castellani et D. Miguele Caetani,
duc de Sermoneta."--_Ampère_, _Hist. Rom._ i. 388.
The _Palazzo Sciarra_ (on left of the Corso), built in 1603 by Labacco,
contains a gallery of pictures. Its six celebrated gems are marked with
an asterisk. We may notice:--
_1st Room._--
5. Death of St. John Baptist: _Valentin_.
13. Holy Family: _Innocenza da Imola_.
15. Rome Triumphant: _Valentin_.
20. Madonna: _Titian_.
23. Sta. Francesca Romana: _Carlo Veneziano_.
_2nd Room._--
17. Flight into Egypt: _Claude Lorrain_.
18. Sunset: _Claude Lorrain_.
_3rd Room._--
6. Holy Family: _Francia_.
9. Boar Hunt: _Garofalo_.
11. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
17. A Monk led by an Angel to the Heavenly Spheres: _Gaudenzio
Ferrari_.
26. The Vestal Claudia drawing a boat with the statue of Ceres up
the Tiber: _Garofalo_.
29. Tavern Scene: _Teniers_.
33. The Fornarina: _Copy of Raphael by Giulio Romano_.
36. Holy Family with Angels: _Lucas Cranach_, 1504.
_4th Room._--
1. Holy Family: _Fra Bartolomeo_.*
"The glow and freshness of colouring in this admirable painting,
the softness of the skin, the beauty and sweetness of the
expression, the look with which the mother's eyes are bent upon
the baby she holds in her arms, and the innocent fondness with
which the other child gazes up in her face, are worthy of the
painter whose works Raphael delighted to study, and from which, in
a great measure, he formed his principles of colouring."--_Eaton's
Rome_.
5. St. John the Evangelist: _Guercino_.
6. The Violin Player (Andrea Marone?): _Raphael_.*
"The Violin Player is a youth holding the bow of a violin and a
laurel wreath in his hand, and looking at the spectators over his
shoulder. The expression of his countenance is sensible and
decided, and betokens a character alive to the impressions of
sense, yet severe. The execution is excellent,--inscribed with the
date 1518."--_Kugler._
7. St. Mark: _Guercino_.
8. Daughter of Herodias: _Guercino_.
12. Conjugal Love: _Agostino Caracci_.
16. The Gamblers: _Caravaggio_.*
"This is a masterpiece of the painter. A sharper is playing at
cards with a youth of family and fortune, whom his confederate,
while pretending to be looking on, is assisting to cheat. The
subject will remind you of the Flemish School, but this painting
bears no resemblance to it. Here is no farce, no caricature.
Character was never more strongly marked, nor a tale more
inimitably told. It is life itself, and you almost forget it is a
picture, and expect to see the game go on. The colouring is beyond
all praise."--_Eaton's Rome._
17. Modesty and Vanity: _Leonardo da Vinci_.*
"One of Leonardo's most beautiful pictures is in Rome, in the
Sciarra Palace--two female half-figures of Modesty and Vanity. The
former, with a veil over her head, is a particularly pleasing,
noble profile, with a clear, open expression; she beckons to her
sister, who stands fronting the spectator, beautifully arrayed, and
with a sweet seducing smile. This picture is remarkably powerful in
colouring, and wonderfully finished, but unfortunately has become
rather dark in the shadows."--_Kugler._
19. Magdalen: _Guido Reni_.
24. Family Portrait: _Titian_.
25. Portrait: _Bronzino_.
26. St. Sebastian: _Perugino_.
29. Bella Donna: _Titian_.*
Sometimes supposed to represent Donna Laura Eustachio, the peasant
Duchess of Alphonso I. of Ferrara.
"When Titian or Tintoret look at a human being, they see at a
glance the whole of its nature, outside and in; all that it has of
form, of colour, of passion, or of thought; saintliness and
loveliness; fleshly power, and spiritual power; grace, or strength,
or softness, or whatsoever other quality, those men will see to the
full, and so paint, that, when narrower people come to look at what
they have done, every one may, if he chooses, find his own special
pleasure in the work. The sensualist will find sensuality in
Titian; the thinker will find thought; the saint, sanctity; the
colourist, colour; the anatomist, form; and yet the picture will
never be a popular one in the full sense, for none of these
narrower people will find their special taste so alone consulted,
as that the qualities which would ensure their gratification shall
be sifted or separated from others; they are checked by the
presence of the other qualities, which ensure the gratification of
other men.... Only there is a strange undercurrent of everlasting
murmur about the name of Titian, which means the deep consent of
all great men that he is greater than they."--_Ruskin's Two Paths,
Lect. 2._
31. Death of the Virgin: _Albert Durer_.
32. Maddalena della Radice: _Guido Reni_.*
"The two Magdalens by Guido are almost duplicates, and yet one is
incomparably superior to the other. She is reclining on a rock, and
her tearful and uplifted eyes, the whole of her countenance and
attitude, speak the overwhelming sorrow that penetrates her soul.
Her face might charm the heart of a stoic; and the contrast of her
youth and enchanting loveliness, with the abandonment of grief, the
resignation of all earthly hope, and the entire devotion of herself
to penitence and heaven, is most affecting."--_Eaton's Rome._[11]
Near the Piazza Sciarra, the Corso (as Via Flaminia) was formerly
spanned by the Arch of Claudius, removed in 1527. Some reliefs from this
arch are preserved in the portico of the Villa Borghese, and though much
mutilated are of fine workmanship. The inscription, which commemorated
the erection of the arch in honour of the conquest of Britain, is
preserved in the courtyard of the Barberini Palace.
On the right of the Piazza Sciarra is the Via della Caravita, containing
the small but popular _Church of the Caravita_,[12] used for the
peculiar religious exercises of the Jesuits, especially for their
terrible Lenten "flagellation" services, which are one of the most
extraordinary sights afforded by Catholic Rome.
"The ceremony of pious whippings, one of the penances of the
convents, still takes place at the time of vespers in the oratory
of the Padre Caravita and in another church in Rome. It is preceded
by a short exhortation, during which a bell rings, and whips, that
is, strings of knotted whipcord, are distributed quietly amongst
such of the audience as are on their knees in the nave. On a second
bell, the candles are extinguished--a loud voice issues from the
altar, which pours forth an exhortation to think of unconfessed, or
unrepented, or unforgiven crimes. This continues a sufficient time
to allow the kneelers to strip off their upper garments; the tone
of the preacher is raised more loudly at each word, and he
vehemently exhorts his hearers to recollect that Christ and the
martyrs suffered much more than whipping. 'Show, then, your
penitence--show your sense of Christ's sacrifice--show it with the
whip.' The flagellation begins. The darkness, the tumultuous sound
of blows in every direction--'Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us!'
bursting out at intervals,--the persuasion that you are surrounded
by atrocious culprits and maniacs, who know of an absolution for
every crime--so far from exciting a smile, fixes you to the spot in
a trance of restless horror, prolonged beyond bearing. The
scourging continues ten or fifteen minutes."--_Lord Broughton._
"Each man on entering the church was supplied with a scourge. After
a short interval the doors were barred, the lights extinguished;
and from praying, the congregation proceeded to groaning, crying,
and finally, being worked up into a kind of ecstatic fury, applied
the scourge to their uncovered shoulders without
mercy."--_Whiteside's Italy in the Nineteenth Century._
Beyond the Caravita is the _Church of S. Ignazio_, built by Cardinal
Ludovisi. The façade, of 1685, is by Algardi. It contains the tomb of
Gregory XIV. (Nicolo Sfondrati, 1590--91), and that of S. Ludovico
Gonzaga, both sculptured by _Le Gros_.
"In S. Ignazio is the chapel of San Luigi Gonzaga, on whom not a
few of the young Roman damsels look with something of the same kind
of admiration as did Clytie on Apollo, whom he and St. Sebastian,
those two young, beautiful, graceful saints, very fairly represent
in Christian mythology. His festa falls in June, and then his altar
is embosomed in flowers, arranged with exquisite taste; and a pile
of letters may be seen at its foot, written to the saint by young
men and maidens, and directed to Paradiso. They are supposed to be
burnt unread, except by San Luigi, who must find singular petitions
in these pretty little missives, tied up now with a green ribbon,
expressive of hope, now with a red one, emblematic of love, or
whatever other significant colour the writer may
prefer."--_Mademoiselle Mori._
The frescoes on the roof and tribune are by the Padre Pozzi.
"Amid the many distinguished men whom the Jesuits sent forth to
every region of the world, I cannot recollect the name of a single
artist unless it be the Father Pozzi, renowned for his skill in
perspective, and who used his skill less as an artist than a
conjuror, to produce such illusions as make the vulgar stare; to
make the impalpable to the grasp appear as palpable to the vision;
the near seem distant, the distant near; the unreal, real; to cheat
the eye; to dazzle the sense;--all this has Father Pozzi most
cunningly achieved in the Gesù and the Sant' Ignazio at Rome; but
nothing more, and nothing better than this. I wearied of his
altar-pieces and of his wonderful roofs which pretend to be no
roofs at all. Scheme, tricks, and deceptions in art should all be
kept for the theatre. It appeared to me nothing less than profane
to introduce _shams_ into the temples of God."--_Mrs. Jameson._
On the left of the Corso--opposite the handsome Palazzo Simonetti--is
the _Church of S. Marcello_ (Pope, 308--10), containing some interesting
modern monuments. Among them are those of Pierre Gilles, the traveller
(ob. 1555), and of the English Cardinal Weld. Here, also, Cardinal
Gonsalvi, the famous and liberal minister of Pius VII., is buried in
the same tomb with his beloved younger brother, the Marchese Andrea
Gonsalvi. Their monument, by Rinaldi, tells that here repose the bodies
of two brothers--
"Qui cum singulari amore dum vivebant
Se mutuo dilexissent
Corpora etiam sua
Una eademque urna condi voluere."
Here are the masterpieces which made the reputation of Pierino del Vaga
(1501--1547). In the chapel of the Virgin are the cherubs, whose
graceful movements and exquisite flesh-tints Vasari declares to have
been unsurpassed by any artist in fresco. In the chapel of the Crucifix
is the Creation of Eve, which is even more beautiful.
"The perfectly beautiful figure of the naked Adam is seen lying,
overpowered by sleep, while Eve, filled with life, and with folded
hands, rises to receive the blessing of her Maker,--a most grand
and solemn figure standing erect in heavy drapery."--_Vasari_, iv.
This church is said to occupy the site of a house of the Christian
matron Lucina, in which Marcellus died of wounds incurred in attempting
to settle a quarrel among his Christian followers. It was in front of it
that the body of the tribune Rienzi, after his murder on the Capitol
steps, was hung up by the feet for two days as a mark for the rabble to
throw stones at.
The next street to the right leads to the _Collegio Romano_, founded by
St. Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia (a descendant of Pope Alexander VI.),
who, after a youth spent amid the splendours of the court of Madrid,
retired to Rome in 1550, in the time of Julius III., and became the
successor of Ignatius Loyola as general of the Jesuits. The buildings
were erected, as we now see them, by Ammanati, in 1582, for Gregory
XIII. The college is entirely under the superintendence of the Jesuits.
The library is large and valuable. The _Kircherian Museum_ (shown to
gentlemen from ten to eleven on Sundays) is worth visiting. It contains
a number of antiquities, illustrative of Roman and Etruscan customs, and
many beautiful ancient bronzes and vases. The most important object is
the "Cista Mistica," a bronze vase and cover, which was given as a prize
to successful gladiators, and which was originally fitted up with
everything useful for their profession.
The _Observatory_ of the Collegio Romano has obtained a European
reputation from the important astronomical researches of its director,
the Padre Secchi.
The Collegio Romano has produced eight popes--Urban VIII., Innocent X.,
Clement IX., Clement X., Innocent XII., Clement XI., Innocent XIII., and
Clement XII. Among its other pupils have been S. Camillo de Lellis, the
Blessed Leonardo di Porto-Maurizio, the Venerable Pietro Berna, and
others.
"Ignace, François Borgia, ont passé par ici. Leur souvenir plane,
comme un encouragement et une bénédiction, sur ces salles où ils
présidèrent aux études, sur ces chaires où peut-être retentit leur
parole, sur ces modestes cellules qu'ils ont habitées. A la fin du
seizième siècle, les élèves du collége Romain perdirent un de leurs
condisciples que sa douce aménité et ses vertus angéliques avaient
rendu l'objet d'un affectueux respect. Ce jeune homme avait été
page de Philippe II.; il était allié aux maisons royales
d'Autriche, de Bourbon et de Lorraine. Mais au milieu de ces
illusions d'une grande vie, sous ce brillant costume de cour qui
semblait lui promettre honneurs et fortune, il ne voyait jamais que
la pieuse figure de sa mère agenouillée au pied des autels, et
priant pour lui. A peine âgé de seize ans, il s'échappe de Madrid,
il vient frapper à la porte du collége Romain, et demande place, au
dortoir et à l'étude, pour Louis Gonzague, fils du comte de
Castiglione. Pendant sept ans, Louis donna dans cette maison le
touchant exemple d'une vie céleste; puis ses jours _déclinèrent_,
comme parle l'Ecriture; il avait assez vécu."--_Gournerie_, _Rome
Chrétienne_, ii. 211.
We now reach (on right) the _Church of Sta. Maria in Via Lata_, which
was founded by Sergius I., in the eighth century, but twice rebuilt, the
second time under Alexander VII., in 1662, when the façade was added by
Pietro da Cortona.
In this church "they still show a little chapel in which, as hath
been handed down from the first ages, St. Luke the Evangelist
wrote, and painted the effigy of the Virgin Mother of God."--_See
Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 155.
The subterranean church is shown as the actual house in which St. Paul
lodged when he was in Rome.
"And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to
the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself
with a soldier that kept him."
"And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into
his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God,
persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and
out of the prophets, from morning till evening." ...
"And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and
received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God,
and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with
all confidence, no man forbidding him."--_Acts_ xxviii. 16, 23, 30,
31.
"St. Paul after his arrival at Rome, having made his usual effort,
in the first place, for the salvation of his own countrymen, and as
usual, having found it vain, turned to the Gentiles, and during two
whole years, in which he was a prisoner, received all that came to
him, preaching the kingdom of God. It was thus that God overruled
his imprisonment for the furtherance of the gospel, so that his
bonds in Christ were manifest in the palace, and in all other
places, and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by
his bonds, were much more bold to speak the word without fear. Even
in the palace of Nero, the most noxious atmosphere, as we should
have concluded, for the growth of divine truth, his bonds were
manifest, the Lord Jesus was preached, and, more than this, was
received to the saving of many souls; for we find the Apostle
writing to his Philippian converts: 'All the saints salute you,
chiefly they which are of Cæsar's household.' The whole Church of
Christ has abundant reason to bless God for the dispensation which,
during the most matured period of St. Paul's Christian life,
detained him a close prisoner in the imperial city. Had he, to the
end of his course, been at large, occupied, as he had long been,
'in labours most abundant,' he would, humanly speaking, never have
found time to pen those epistles which are among the most blessed
portion of the Church's inheritance. It was from within the walls
of a prison, probably chained hand to hand to the soldier who kept
him, that St. Paul indited the Epistles to the Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews."--_Blunt's Lectures on St.
Paul._
"In writing to Philemon, Paul chooses to speak of himself as the
captive of Jesus Christ. Yet he went whither he would, and was free
to receive those who came to him. It is interesting to remember
amid these solemn vaults, the different events of St. Paul's
apostolate, during the two years that he lived here. It was here
that he converted Onesimus, that he received the presents of the
Philippians, brought by Epaphroditus; it was hence that he wrote to
Philemon, to Titus, to the inhabitants of Philippi and of Colosse;
it was here that he preached devotion to the cross with that
glowing eagerness, with that startling eloquence, which gained
fresh power from contest and which inspiration rendered sublime.
"Peter addressed himself to the Circumcised; Paul to the
Gentiles,[13]--to their silence that he might confound it, to their
reason that he might humble it. Had he not already converted the
proconsul Sergius Paulus and Dionysius the Areopagite? At Rome his
word is equally powerful, and among the courtiers of Nero, perhaps
even amongst his relations, are those who yield to the power of
God, who reveals himself in each of the teachings of his
servant.[14] Around the Apostle his eager disciples group
themselves--Onesiphorus of Ephesus, who was not ashamed of his
chain;[15] Epaphras of Colosse, who was captive with him,
_concaptivus meus_;[16] Timothy, who was one with his master in a
holy union of every thought, and who was attached to him like a
son, _sicut patri filius_;[17] Hermas, Aristarchus, Marcus,
Demas--and Luke the physician, the faithful companion of the
Apostle, his well-beloved disciple--'Lucas medicus
carissimus.'"--_From Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne._
"I honour Rome for this reason; for though I could celebrate her
praises on many other accounts--for her greatness, for her beauty,
for her power, for her wealth, and for her warlike exploits,--yet,
passing over all these things, I glorify her on this account, that
Paul in his lifetime wrote to the Romans, and loved them, and was
present with and conversed with them, and ended his life amongst
them. Wherefore the city is on this account renowned more than on
all others--on this account I admire her, not on account of her
gold, her columns, or her other splendid decorations."--_St. John
Chrysostom, Homily on the Ep. to the Romans._
"The Roman Jews expressed a wish to hear from St. Paul himself a
statement of his religious sentiments, adding that the Christian
sect was everywhere spoken against.... A day was fixed for the
meeting at his private lodging.
"The Jews came in great numbers at the appointed time. Then
followed an impressive scene, like that at Troas (Acts xxi.)--the
Apostle pleading long and earnestly,--bearing testimony concerning
the kingdom of God,--and endeavouring to persuade them by arguments
drawn from their own Scriptures,--'from morning till evening.' The
result was a division among the auditors--'not peace, but a
sword,'--the division which has resulted ever since, when the Truth
of God has encountered, side by side, earnest conviction with
worldly indifference, honest investigation with bigoted prejudice,
trustful faith with the pride of scepticism. After a long and
stormy discussion, the unbelieving portion departed; but not until
St. Paul had warned them, in one last address, that they were
bringing upon themselves that awful doom of judicial blindness,
which was denounced in their own Scriptures against obstinate
unbelievers; that the salvation which they rejected would be
withdrawn from them, and the inheritance they renounced would be
given to the Gentiles. The sentence with which he gave emphasis to
this solemn warning was that passage in Isaiah, which recurring
thus with solemn force at the very close of the Apostolic history,
seems to bring very strikingly together the Old Dispensation and
the New, and to connect the ministry of Our Lord with that of His
Apostles:--'Go unto this people and say: Hearing ye shall hear and
shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not
perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their
ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest
they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should
heal them.'
" ... During the long delay of his trial St. Paul was not reduced,
as he had been at Cæsarea, to a forced inactivity. On the contrary,
he was permitted the freest intercourse with his friends, and was
allowed to reside in a house of sufficient size to accommodate the
congregation which flocked together to listen to his teaching. The
freest scope was given to his labours, consistent with the military
custody under which he was placed. We are told, in language
peculiarly emphatic, that his preaching was subjected to no
restraint whatever. And that which seemed at first to impede, must
really have deepened the impression of his eloquence; for who could
see without emotion that venerable form subjected by iron links to
the coarse control of the soldier who stood beside him? how often
must the tears of the assembly have been called forth by the
upraising of that fettered hand, and the clanking of the chain
which checked its energetic action.
"We shall see hereafter that these labours of the imprisoned
Confessor were not fruitless; in his own words, he 'begot many
children in his chains.' Meanwhile, he had a wider sphere of action
than even the metropolis of the world. Not only 'the crowd which
pressed upon him daily,' but also 'the care of all the churches'
demanded his constant vigilance and exertion.... To enable him to
maintain this superintendence, he manifestly needed many faithful
messengers; men who (as he says of one of them) 'rendered him
profitable service'; and by some of whom he seems to have been
constantly accompanied, wheresoever he went. Accordingly we find
him, during this Roman imprisonment, surrounded by many of his
oldest and most valued attendants. Luke, his fellow-traveller,
remained with him during his bondage; Timotheus, his beloved son in
the faith, ministered to him at Rome, as he had done in Asia, in
Macedonia, and in Achaia. Tychicus, who had formerly borne him
company from Corinth to Ephesus, is now at hand to carry his
letters to the shores which they had visited together. But there
are two names amongst his Roman companions which excite a peculiar
interest, though from opposite reasons,--the names of Demas and of
Mark. The latter, when last we heard of him, was the unhappy cause
of the separation of Barnabas and Paul. He was rejected by Paul, as
unworthy to attend him, because he had previously abandoned the
work of the Gospel out of timidity or indolence. It is delightful
to find him now ministering obediently to the very Apostle who had
then repudiated his services; still more to know that he
persevered in this fidelity even to the end, and was sent for by
St. Paul to cheer his dying hours. Demas, on the other hand, is now
a faithful 'fellow-labourer' of the Apostle but in a few years we
shall find that he had 'forsaken' him, having 'loved this present
world.'
"Amongst the rest of St. Paul's companions at this time, there were
two whom he distinguishes by the honourable title of his
'fellow-prisoners.' One of these is Aristarchus, the other
Epaphras. With regard to the former, we know that he was a
Macedonian of Thessalonica, one of 'Paul's companions in travel,'
whose life was endangered by the mob at Ephesus, and who embarked
with St. Paul at Cæsarea when he set sail for Rome. The other,
Epaphras, was a Colossian, who must not be identified with the
Philippian Epaphroditus, another of St. Paul's fellow-labourers
during this time. It is not easy to say in what exact sense these
two disciples were peculiarly _fellow-prisoners_ of St. Paul.
Perhaps it only implies that they dwelt in his house, which was
also his prison.
"But of all the disciples now ministering to St. Paul at Rome, none
has a greater interest than the fugitive Asiatic slave Onesimus. He
belonged to a Christian named Philemon, a member of the Colossian
Church. But he had robbed his master, and fled from Colosse, and at
last found his way to Rome. Here he was converted to the faith of
Christ, and had confessed to St. Paul his sins against his
master."--_Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul._
A fountain in the crypt is shown, as having miraculously sprung up in
answer to the prayers of St. Paul, that he might have wherewithal to
baptize his disciples. At the end of the crypt are some large blocks of
peperino, said to be remains of the arch erected by the senate in honour
of the Emperor Gordian III., and destroyed by Innocent VIII.
Far along the right side of the Corso now extends the façade of the
immense _Palazzo Doria_, built by Valvasori (the front towards the
Collegio Romano being by Pietro da Cortona, and that towards the Piazza
Venezia by Amati). Entering the courtyard, one must turn left to reach
the _Picture Gallery_ (which is open on Tuesdays and Fridays, from ten
till two)--a vast collection, which contains some grand portraits and a
few other fine paintings.
The _1st Room_ entered is a great hall--to which pictures are removed
for copying. It contains four fine sarcophagi, with reliefs of the Hunt
of Meleager, the Story of Marsyas, Endymion and Diana, and a Bacchic
procession. Of two ancient circular altars, one serves as the pedestal
of a bearded Dionysus. The pictures are chiefly landscapes, of the
school of Poussin and Salvator Rosa,--that of the Deluge is by _Ippolito
Scarsellino_.
_2nd Room._--In the centre a Centaur (restored), of basalt and
rosso-antico. On either side groups of boys playing.
_Pictures:_--
4. Caritas Romana: _Valentin_.
5. Circumcision: _Giov. Bellini?_
7. Madonna and Saints: _Basaiti_.
15. Temptations of St. Anthony: _Scuola di Mantegna_.
19. St. John in the Desert: _Guercino?_
35. Birth of St. John: _Vittore Pisanello_.
21. Spozalizio: _V. Pisanello_.
23. St. Sylvester before Maximin II.: _Pesellino_.
24. Madonna and Child: _F. Francia?_
28. Annunciation: _Fil. Lippi_.
29. St. Sylvester and the Dragon: _Pesellino_ (see the account of
Sta. Maria Liberatrice).
33. St. Agnes on the burning pile: _Guercino_.
37. Magdalen: _Copy of the Titian in the Pitti Palace_.
_4th Room._--
A bust of Innocent X. (with whose ill-acquired wealth this palace
was built) in rosso-antico, with a bronze head: _Bernini_.
_5th Room._--
17. The Money-changers: _Quentin Matsys_.
25. St. Joseph: _Guercino_. In the centre, a group of Jacob
wrestling with the Angel: _School of Bernini_.
_6th Room._--
8. Portrait of Olympia Maldacchini, the sister-in-law of Innocent
X., who ruled Rome in his time.
13. Madonna: _Carlo Maratta_.
30. Sketch of a Boy: _Incognito_.
From this room we enter a small cabinet, hung with pictures of
_Breughel_ and _Fiammingo_, and containing a bust by _Algardi_, of
Olympia Maldacchini-Pamfili, who built the Villa Doria Pamfili for her
son.
_7th Room._--
8. Belisarius in the desert: _Salvator Rosa_.
19. Slaughter of the Innocents: _Mazzolino_.
We now enter the Galleries--which begin towards the left--
_1st Gallery._--
2. Holy Family in glory, and two Franciscan Saints adoring:
_Garofalo_.
3. Magdalen: _Annibale Caracci_.
8. Two Heads: _Quentin Matsys_.
9. Holy Family: _Sassoferrato_.
10. Story of the conversion of S. Eustachio (see the description of
his church): _School of Albert Durer_.
14. A Portrait: _Titian_.
15. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
20. The Three Ages of Man: _Titian_.*
21. Return of the Prodigal Son: _Guercino_.
25. Landscape with the Flight into Egypt: _Claude Lorraine_.
26. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth: _Garofalo_.
38. Copy of the "Nozze Aldobrandini:" _Poussin_.
45. Madonna: _Guido Reni_.
50. Holy Family: _Giulio Romano, from Raphael_.
_2nd Gallery._--
6. Madonna: _Fran. Francia_.
14. "Bartolo and Baldo:" _Raphael_.*
17. Portrait: _Titian_.
21. Portrait of a Widow: _Vandyke_.
24. Three Heads, called Calvin, Luther, and Catherine: _Giorgione_.
26. Sacrifice of Isaac: _Titian_.
33. Portrait of a Pamfili: _Vandyke_.
40. Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist: _Pordenone_. A
grand bust of Andrew Doria.
50. "The Confessor:" _Rubens_.
53. Joanna of Arragon: _School of Leonardo da Vinci_.*
56. Magdalene: _School of Titian_.
61. Adoration of the Infant Jesus: _Gio. Batt. Benvenuti_
('_l'Ortolano_').
66. Holy Family: _Garofalo_.
69. Glory crowning Virtue (a sketch): _Correggio_.
80. Portrait of Titian and his Wife: _Titian_. Also a number of
pictures of the Creation: _Breughel_.
_3rd Gallery._--
1, 6, 28, 34. Landscapes (with figures introduced): _Ann. Caracci_.
5. Landscape, with Mercury stealing cattle: _Claude Lorraine_.
10. Titian's Wife: _Titian_.
11. "Niccolaus Macchiavellus Historiar. Scriptor:" _Bronzino_.
12. "The Mill:" _Claude Lorraine_.*
"The foreground of the picture of 'the Mill' is a piece of very
lovely and perfect forest scenery, with a dance of peasants by a
brook-side; quite enough subject to form, in the hands of a master,
an impressive and complete picture. On the other side of the brook,
however, we have a piece of pastoral life; a man with some bulls
and goats tumbling head foremost into the water, owing to some
sudden paralytic affection of all their legs. Even this group is
one too many; the shepherd had no business to drive his flock so
near the dancers, and the dancers will certainly frighten the
cattle. But when we look farther into the picture, our feelings
receive a sudden and violent shock, by the unexpected appearance,
amidst things pastoral and musical, of the military; a number of
Roman soldiers riding in on hobby-horses, with a leader on foot,
apparently encouraging them to make an immediate and decisive
charge on the musicians. Beyond the soldiers is a circular temple,
in exceedingly bad repair; and close beside it, built against its
very walls, a neat water-mill in full work; by the mill flows a
large river with a weir across it.... At an inconvenient distance
from the water-side stands a city, composed of twenty-five round
towers and a pyramid. Beyond the city is a handsome bridge; beyond
the bridge, part of the Campagna, with fragments of aqueducts;
beyond the Campagna the chain of the Alps; on the left, the
cascades of Tivoli.
"This is a fair example of what is commonly called an 'ideal'
landscape; _i.e._ a group of the artist's studies from nature,
individually spoiled, selected with such opposition of character as
may insure their neutralizing each other's effect, and united with
sufficient unnaturalness and violence of association to insure
their producing a general sensation of the impossible."--_Ruskin's
Modern Painters._
"Many painters take a particular spot, and sketch it to perfection;
but Claude was convinced that taking nature as he found it, seldom
produced beauty. Neither did he like exhibiting in his pictures
accidents of nature. He professed to pourtray the style of general
nature, and so his pictures were a composition of the various
draughts which he had previously made from beautiful scenes and
prospects."--_Sir J. Reynolds._
18. Pietà: _Ann. Caracci_.
23. Landscape, with the Temple of Apollo: _Claude Lorraine_.
26. Portrait: _Mazzolino_.
27. Portrait: _Giorgione_.
33. Landscape, with Diana hunting: _Claude Lorraine_.
At the end of this gallery is a small cabinet, containing the gems of
the collection:--
1. Portrait of a "Letterato:" _Lucas V. Leyden?_*
2. Portrait of Andrea Doria: _Sebastian del Piombo_.*
3. Portrait of Giannetto Doria: _Bronzino_.*
4. Portrait of S. Filippo Neri, as a boy: _Barocci_.
5. Portrait of Innocent X.; Gio. Battista Pamfili (1644--55):
_Velasquez_.*
6. Entombment: _John Emelingk_.*
Here, also, is the bust of the late beloved Princess Doria (Lady Mary
Talbot), which has always been veiled in crape since her death.
The _4th Gallery_ is decorated with mirrors, and with statues of no
especial merit.
"In the whole immense range of rooms of the Palazzo Doria, I saw
but a single fire-place, and that so deep in the wall that no
amount of blaze would raise the atmosphere of the room ten degrees.
If the builder of the palace, or any of his successors, have
committed crimes worthy of Tophet, it would be a still worse
punishment to him to wander perpetually through this suite of
rooms, on the cold floors of polished brick tiles, or marble, or
mosaic, growing a little chiller and chiller through every moment
of eternity--or at least, till the palace crumbles down upon
him."--_Hawthorne, Notes on Italy._
Opposite the Palazzo Doria is the _Palazzo Salviati_. The next two
streets on the left lead into the long narrow square called _Piazza
Santi Apostoli_, containing several handsome palaces. That on the right
is the _Palazzo Odescalchi_, built by Bernini, in 1660, for Cardinal
Fabio Chigi, to whose family it formerly belonged. It has some fine
painted and carved wooden ceilings. This palace is supposed to be the
scene of the latest miracle of the Roman Catholic Church. The present
Princess Odescalchi had long been bedridden, and was apparently dying of
a hopeless disease, when, while her family were watching what they
considered her last moments, the pope (Pius IX.) sent, by the hands of a
nun, a little loaf (panetello), which he desired her to swallow. With
terrible effort, the sick woman obeyed, and was immediately healed, and
on the following day the astonished Romans saw her go in person to the
pope, at the Vatican, to return thanks for her restoration!
The building at the end of the square is the _Palazzo Valentini_, which
once contained a collection of antiquities.
Near this, on the left, but separated from the piazza by a courtyard, is
the vast _Palazzo Colonna_, begun, in the fifteenth century, by Martin
V., and continued at various later periods. Julius II. at one time made
it his residence, and also Cardinal (afterwards San Carlo) Borromeo.
Part of it is now the residence of the French ambassadors. The palace is
built very near the site of the ancient fortress of the Colonna
family--so celebrated in times of mediæval warfare with the Orsini--of
which one lofty tower still remains, in a street leading up to the
Quirinal.
The _Gallery_ is shown every day, except Sundays and holidays, from 11
to 3. It is entered by the left wing. The first room is a fine, gloomy
old hall, containing the family dais, and hung with decaying Colonna
portraits. Then come three rooms covered with tapestries, the last
containing a pretty statue of a girl, sometimes called Niobe. Hence we
reach the pictures. The _1st Room_ has an interesting collection of the
early schools, including Madonnas of _Filippo Lippi_; _Luca Longhi_;
_Botticelli_; _Gentile da Fabriano_; _Innocenza da Imola_; a curious
Crucifixion, by _Jacopo d'Avanzo_; and a portrait by _Giovanni Sanzio_,
father of Raphael.
The ceiling of the _3rd Room_ has a fresco, by _Battoni_ and _Luti_, of
the apotheosis of Martin V. (Oddone Colonna, 1417--24). Among its
pictures, are St. Bernard, _Giovanni Bellini_; Onuphrius Pavinius,
_Titian_; Holy Family, _Bronzino_; Peasant dining, _Annibale Caracci_;
St. Jerome, _Spagna_; Portrait, _Paul Veronese_; Holy Family,
_Bonifazio_.
Hence we enter the _Great Hall_, a truly grand room, hung with mirrors
and painted with flowers by _Mario de' Fiori_, and with genii by
_Maratta_. The statues here are unimportant. The ceiling is adorned with
paintings, by _Coli_ and _Gherardi_, of the battle of Lepanto, Oct. 8,
1571, which Marc-Antonio Colonna assisted in gaining. The best pictures
are the family portraits:--Federigo Colonna, _Sustermanns_; Don Carlo
Colonna, _Vandyke_; Card. Pompeio Colonna, _Lorenzo Lotto_; Vittoria
Colonna, _Muziano_; Lucrezia Colonna, _Vandyke_; Pompeio Colonna,
_Agostino Caracci_; Giacomo Sciarra Colonna, _Giorgione_. We may also
notice an extraordinary picture of the Madonna rescuing a child from a
demon, by _Niccolo d'Alunno_, with a double portrait, by _Tintoret_, on
the right wall, and a Holy Family of _Palma Vecchio_ at the end of the
gallery. Near the entrance are some glorious old cabinets, inlaid with
ivory and lapis-lazuli. On the steps leading to the upper end of the
hall is a bomb left on the spot where it fell during the siege of Rome
in 1848.
(Through the palace access may be obtained to the beautiful Colonna
Gardens; but as they are generally visited from the Quirinal, they will
be noticed in the description of that hill.)
"On parle d'un Pierre Colonna, dépouillé de tous ses biens en 1100
par le pape Pascal II. Il fallait que la famille fût déjà
passablement ancienne, car les grandes fortunes ne s'élèvent pas en
un jour."--_About._
"Si n'etoit le différent des Ursins et des Colonnois (Orsini and
Colonna) la terre de l'Eglise seroit la plus heureuse habitation
pour les subjects, qui soit en tout le monde."--_Philippe de
Comines._ 1500.
"Gloriosa Colonna, in cui s' appoggia
Nostra speranza, e'l gran nome Latino,
Ch'ancor non torte del vero cammino
L'ira di Giove per ventosa pioggia."
_Petrarca, Sonnetto_ X.
Adjoining the Palazzo Colonna is the fine _Church of the Santi
Apostoli_, founded in the sixth century, rebuilt by Martin V., in 1420,
and modernized, _c._ 1602, by Fontana. The portico contains a
magnificent bas-relief of an eagle and an oak-wreath (frequently copied
and introduced in architectural designs).
"Entrez sous la portique de l'église des Saints-Apôtres, et vous
trouverez là, encadré par hasard dans le mur, un aigle qu'entoure
une couronne d'un magnifique travail. Vous reconnaîtrez facilement
dans cet aigle et cette couronne la représentation d'une ensigne
romaine, telle que les bas-reliefs de la colonne Trajane vous en
ont montré plusieurs; seulement ce qui était là en petit est ici en
grand."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 168.
Also in the portico, is a monument, by _Canova_, to Volpato, the
engraver. Over the sacristy door is the tomb of Pope Clement XIV. (Giov.
Antonio Ganganelli, 1769-74), also by Canova, executed in his
twenty-fifth year.
"La mort de Clément XIV. est du 22 Septembre, 1774. A cette époque,
Alphonse de Liguori était évêque de Sainte-Agathe des Goths, au
royaume de Naples. Le 22 Septembre, au matin, l'évêque tomba dans
une espèce de sommeil léthargique après avoir dit la messe, et,
pendant vingt-quatre heures, il demeura sans mouvement dans son
fauteuil. Ses serviteurs s'étonnant de cet état, le lendemain, avec
lui:--'Vous ne savez pas, leur dit-il, que j'ai assisté le pape qui
vient de mourir.' Peu après, la nouvelle du décès de Clément arriva
à Sainte Agathe."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne_, ii. 362.
In 1873 the traditional grave of St. Philip and St. James, the
"Apostoli" to whom this church is dedicated, was opened during its
restoration. Two bodies were found, enclosed in a sarcophagus of
beautiful transparent marble, and have been duly enshrined. In the choir
are monuments of the fifteenth century, to two relations of Pope Sixtus
IV., Pietro Riario, and Cardinal Raffaelo Riario. To the right is the
tomb of the Chevalier Girard, brother-in-law of Pope Julius II., and
maître d'hôtel to Charles VIII. and Louis XII. of France. The tomb of
Cardinal Bessarion was removed from the church, in 1702, to the
cloisters of the adjoining Convent, which is the residence of the
General of the Order of "Minori Conventuali" (Black Friars). The
altar-piece represents the martyrdom of SS. Philip and James, by
_Muratori_.
The heart of Maria Clementina Sobieski (buried in St. Peter's), wife of
James III., called the First Pretender, is also preserved here, as is
shown by a Latin inscription.
"Le roi d'Angleterre est devot a l'excès; sa matinée se passe en
prières aux Saints-Apôtres, près du tombeau de sa femme."--_De
Brosses_, 1739.
In 1552 this church was remarkable for the sermons of the monk Felix
Peretti, afterwards Sixtus V.
"Suivant un manuscrit de la bibliothèque Alfieri, un jour, pendant
qu'il était dans la chaire des Saints-Apôtres, un billet cacheté
lui fut remis; Frère Félix l'ouvre et y lit, en face d'un certain
nombre de propositions que l'on disait être extraites de ses
discours, ce mot écrit en gros caractères: MENTIRIS (tu mens). Le
fougueux orateur eut peine à contenir son émotion; il termina son
sermon en quelques paroles, et courut au palais de l'Inquisition
présenter le billet mystérieux, et demander qu'on examinât
scrupuleusement sa doctrine. Cet examen lui fut favorable, et il
lui valut l'amitié du grand inquisiteur, Michael Ghislieri, qui
comprit aussitôt tout le parti qu'on pouvait tirer d'un homme dont
les moindres actions étaient empreintes d'une inébranlable force de
caractère."--_Gournerie._
In this church is buried the young Countess Savorelli, the story of
whose love, misfortunes, and death, has been celebrated by About, under
the name of _Tolla_ (the Lello of the story having been one of the
Doria-Pamfili family).
"The convent which Tolla had sanctified by her death sent three
embassies in turn to beg to preserve her relics: already the people
spoke of her as a saint. But Count Feraldi (Savorelli) considered
that it was due to his honour and to his vengeance to bear her
remains with pomp to the tomb of his family. He had sufficient
influence to obtain that for which permission is not granted once
in ten years: the right of transporting her uncovered, upon a bed
of white velvet, and of sparing her the horrors of a coffin. The
beloved remains were wrapped in the white muslin robe which she
wore in the garden on the day when she exchanged her sweet vows
with Lello. The Marchesa Trasimeni, ill and wasted as she was, came
herself to arrange her hair in the manner she loved. Every garden
in Rome despoiled itself to send her its flowers; it was only
necessary to choose. The funeral procession quitted the church of
S. Antonio Abbate on Thursday evening at 7.30 for the Santi
Apostoli, where the Feraldis are buried. The body was preceded by a
long file of the black and white confraternities, each bearing its
banner. The red light of the torches played upon the countenance of
the beautiful dead, and seemed to animate her afresh. The piazza
was filled with a dense and closely packed but dumb crowd; no
discordant sound troubled the grief of the relations and friends of
Tolla, who wept together at the Palazzo Feraldi....
"The Church of the Apostoli and the tomb of the poor loving girl,
became at certain days of the year an object of pilgrimage, and
more than one young Roman maiden adds to her evening litany the
words, 'St. Tolla, virgin and martyr, pray for us.'"--_About._
Just beyond the church is the _Palazzo Muto-Savorelli_ (the home of
Tolla, "Palazzo Feraldi") long the residence of Prince Charles Edward
("the last Pretender"), who died here in 1788. Hence the _Via delle
Vergini_, with its dismal lines of latticed convent-windows, leads to
the Fountain of Trevi.
Returning to the Corso, we pass (right) _Palazzo Buonaparte_, built by
Giovanni dei Rossi in 1660. Here Lætitia Buonaparte--"Madame Mère"--the
mother of Napoleon I., died February 2nd, 1836. The present head of the
family is Cardinal Lucien-Louis Buonaparte, son of Prince Charles (son
of Lucien) and of Princess Zénaïde, daughter of King Joseph of Spain.
His only surviving brother is Prince Napoleon Buonaparte.
This palace forms one corner of the _Piazza di Venezia_, which contains
the ancient castellated _Palace_ of the Republic of Venice, built in
1468 by Giuliano da Majano (with materials plundered from the Coliseum)
for Paul II., who was of Venetian birth. On the ruin of the republic the
palace fell into the hands of Austria, and is still the residence of the
Austrian ambassador, to whom it was specially reserved on the cession of
Venice to Italy.
Opposite this, on a line with the Corso, is the _Palazzo Torlonia_,
built by Fontana in 1650, for the Bolognetti family.
"Nobility is certainly more the fruit of wealth in Italy than in
England. Here, where a title and estate are sold together, a man
who can buy the one secures the other. From the station of a
lacquey, an Italian who can amass riches, may rise to that of duke.
Thus Torlonia, the Roman banker, purchased the title and estate of
the Duca di Bracciano, fitted up the 'Palazzo Nuovo di Torlonia'
with all the magnificence that wealth commands; and a marble
gallery, with its polished floors, modern statues, painted
ceilings, and gilded furniture, far outshines the faded splendour
of the halls of the old Roman nobility."--_Eaton's Rome._
"Un ancien domestique de place, devenu spéculateur et banquier,
achète un marquisat, puis une principauté. Il crée un majorat pour
son fils aîné et une seconde géniture en faveur de l'autre. L'un
épouse une Sforza-Cesarini et marie ses deux fils à une Chigi et
une Ruspoli; l'autre obtient pour femme une Colonna-Doria. C'est
ainsi que la famille Torlonia, par la puissance de l'argent et la
faveur du saint-père, s'est élevée presque subitement à la hauteur
des plus grands maisons népotiques et féodales."--_About._
The most interesting of the antiquities preserved in this palace is a
bas-relief, representing a combat between men and animals, brought
hither from the Palazzo Orsini, and probably pourtraying the famous
dedication of the theatre of Marcellus on that site, celebrated by the
slaughter of six hundred animals.
The end of the Corso--narrowed by a projecting wing of the Venetian
Palace--is known as the _Ripresa dei Barberi_, because there the
horses, which run in the races during the Carnival, are caught in large
folds of drapery let down across the street to prevent their dashing
themselves to pieces against the opposite wall.
Close to the end of this street, built into the wall of a house in the
Via di Marforio, is one of the few relics of republican times in the
city,--a Doric _Tomb_, bearing an inscription which states that it was
erected by order of the people on land granted by the Senate to Caius
Publicius Bibulus, the plebeian ædile, and his posterity. Petrarch
mentions in one of his letters that he wrote one of his sonnets leaning
against the tomb of Bibulus.
This tomb has a secondary interest as marking the commencement of the
Via Flaminia, as it stood just outside the Porta Ratumena from whence
that road issued. There are some obscure remains of another tomb on the
other side of the street. The Via Flaminia, like the Via Appia, was once
fringed with tombs.
From the Ripresa dei Barberi, a street passing under an arch on the
right, leads to the back of the Venetian Palace, where is the _Church of
S. Marco_, originally founded in the time of Constantine, but rebuilt in
833, and modernized by Cardinal Quirini in 1744. Its portico, which is
lined with early Christian inscriptions, contains a fine fifteenth
century doorway, surmounted by a figure of St. Mark. The interior is in
the form of a basilica, its naves and aisles separated by twenty
columns, and ending in an apse. The best pictures are S. Marco, "a pope
enthroned, by _Carlo Crivelli_, resembling in sharpness of finish and
individuality the works of Bartolomeo Viviani,"[18] and a Resurrection
by _Palma Giovane_.
"The mosaics of S. Marco, executed under Pope Gregory IV. (A.D.
827--844), with all their splendour, exhibit the utmost poverty of
expression. Above the tribune, in circular compartments, is the
portrait of Christ between the symbols of the Evangelists, and
further below SS. Peter and Paul (or two prophets) with scrolls;
within the tribune, beneath a hand extended with a wreath, is the
standing figure of Christ with an open book, and on either side, S.
Angelo and Pope Gregory IV. Further on, but still belonging to the
dome, are the thirteen lambs, forming a second and quite uneven
circle round the figures. The execution is here especially rude,
and of true Byzantine rigidity, while, as if the artist knew that
his long lean figures were anything but secure upon their feet, he
has given them each a separate little pedestal. The lines of the
drapery are chiefly straight and parallel, while, with all this
rudeness, a certain play of colour has been contrived by the
introduction of high lights of another colour."--_Kugler._
This church is said to have been originally founded in honour of the
Evangelist in 337 by Pope Marco, but this pope, being himself canonized,
is also honoured here, and is buried under the high altar. On April
25th, St. Mark's Day, a grand procession of clergy starts from this
church. It was for the most part rebuilt under Gregory IV. in 838.
Behind the Palazzo Venezia is the vast _Church of Il Gesù_, begun in
1568 by the celebrated Vignola, but the cupola and façade completed in
1575 by his scholar Giacomo della Porta. In the interior is the monument
of Cardinal Bellarmin, and various pictures representing events in the
lives or deaths of the Jesuit saints,--that of the death of St. Francis
Xavier is by _Carlo Maratta_. The high altar, by Giacomo della Porta,
has fine columns of giallo-antico. The altar of St. Ignatius at the end
of the left transept is of gaudy magnificence. It was designed by Padre
Pozzi, the group of the Trinity being by Bernardino Ludovisi; the globe
in the hand of the Almighty is said to be the largest piece of
lapis-lazuli in existence. Beneath this altar, and his silver statue,
lies the body of St. Ignatius Loyola, in an urn of gilt bronze, adorned
with precious stones. A great ceremony takes place in this church on
July 31st, the feast of St. Ignatius, and on December 31st a Te Deum is
sung here for the mercies of the past year, in the presence of the pope,
cardinals, and the people of Rome,--a really solemn and impressive
service.
The _Convent of the Gesù_ is the residence of the General of the Jesuits
("His Paternity"), and the centre of religious life in their Order. The
rooms in which St. Ignatius lived and died are of the deepest historic
interest. They consist of four chambers. The first, now a chapel, is
that in which he wrote his "Constitutions." The second, also a chapel,
is that in which he died. It contains the altar at which he daily
celebrated mass, and the autograph engagement to live under the same
laws of obedience, poverty, and chastity, signed by Laynez, Francis
Xavier, and Ignatius Loyola. On its walls are two portraits of Ignatius
Loyola, one as a young knight, the other as a Jesuit father, and
portraits of S. Carlo Borromeo and S. Filippo Neri. It was in this
chamber also that St. Francis Borgia died. The third room was that of
the attendant monk of St. Ignatius; the fourth is now a kind of museum
of relics containing portions of his robes and small articles which
belonged to him and to other saints of the Order.
Facing the Church of the Gesù is the _Palazzo Altieri_, built by
Cardinal Altieri in 1670, from designs of Giov. Antonio Rossi.
"Quand le palais Altieri fut achevé, les Altieri, neveux de Clément
X., invitèrent leur oncle à le venir voir. Il s'y fit porter, et
d'aussi loin qu'il aperçut la magnificence et l'étendue de cette
superbe fabrique, il reboussa chemin le cœur serré, sans dire un
seul mot, et mourut peu après."--_De Brosses._
"On the staircase of the Palazzo Altieri, is an ancient colossal
marble _finger_, of such extraordinary size, that it is really
worth a visit."--_Eaton's Rome._
This palace was the residence of the late noble-hearted vicar-general,
Cardinal Altieri, who died a martyr to his devotion to his flock (as
Bishop of Albano) during the terrible visitation of cholera at Albano in
1867.
The _Piazza del Gesù_ is considered to be the most draughty place in
Rome. The legend runs that the devil and the wind were one day taking a
walk together. When they came to this square, the devil, who seemed to
be very devout, said to the wind, "Just wait a minute, mio caro, while I
go into this church." So the wind promised, and the devil went into the
Gesù, and has never come out again--and the wind is blowing about in the
Piazza del Gesù to this day.